Special Delivery
by Apapazukamori
Summary: Before he was the first King of Shin Makoku, he was a General, and he had a special task he wanted completed. Shinou/Sage.


**Special Delivery**

The General of the Mazoku Army had never been to this part of the camp before. Though given his impressive lack of free time at any given moment, no one should be surprised that he had little experience with the section of the camp where the followers and families lived. As if families belonged in an army. He passed tents with mothers nursing infants out front and had to step carefully as urchins of every type of mixed bloodline imaginable darted underfoot. He wondered where their fathers were, or if they even still lived. Every woman he passed could be a widow and not know it yet. Fortunately, no one seemed to recognize him, and had no reason to call him out and ask. Leaving him to wander unmolested among these people he had to protect.

Perhaps he should tour these small tent-cities more often.

Today, however, his thoughts were not so dark. Not with an incredibly important mission ahead of him. The General kept his eyes open and one hand tightly clasped around the bag he carried. No pickpockets would be victimizing him today. One little girl caught his eye, a skinny little redhead with freckles and huge green eyes. She looked at him suspiciously as he knelt down and waved her forward. "Come out, girl," he called, trying very hard not to sound impatient. "I will not hurt you."

She inched toward him and he held up the bag. "I have a task I would ask you to perform for me."

He smiled as she plucked the bag from his fingers, immediately looking inside. "Sir, you knows your business, don't you, sir."

"I was once not so different from you," he replied as she pulled out a piece of bread and began to devour it. "Now, will you help me?" She nodded eagerly. "Do you know the field just west of here where those blue flowers grow?"

"I do, sir," she said around another mouthful. "Me ma puts them in her hair."

The General nodded. "I would like you to pick a great many of them, and deliver them to someone very important."

She swallowed, looking wary. "Important, sir?"

"He is about my height, and has black hair and eyes."

The girl nearly dropped the bag. "A double-black, sir?" she whispered, eyes even larger than before. "But, but I couldn't, sir... he'll put some awful curse on me." She eyed the bag longingly, but began to hold it out for him to retrieve.

He bit down on a knee-jerk reply to her reaction, and shook his head. "He will not do any such thing," the General chided. "Double-blacks are no different from you or I, and he is a very gentle soul, I promise you."

She gnawed on her bottom lip. "I dunno, sir," she mumbled. "Me ma says they ain't to be trusted."

He dropped a hand on her head and looked right into her eyes. "Then trust me. I give you my word, I would not send you into danger." After a long moment, she nodded, and clutched the bag back close to her chest. He reached into his purse and pulled out a short strip of leather with a lion branded on one end. "Now, he is in the section of camp where the officers are, so if any give you trouble, show that to them and they will allow you to pass."

She took the token and looked it over, before it disappeared into her pocket. "Yes, sir."

The General smiled. "I expect this task to be completed before nightfall, is that clear?"

Grinning back at him and showing off a gap-toothed smile, she offered him a salute. "Yes, sir!"

--+--

The General poured over tactical maps for what seemed like the millionth time. The best location for a battle would be one which put them at an altitude advantage. A handful of locations seemed to fit; he only had to decide one and then they could devise the best way to lure the enemy in. Of course, he allowed himself a moment of distraction to trace his fingers over his homeland, then shake his head regretfully. He marked his ideal choice for a location in chalk, then blinked when a long, blue-headed blossom fell on his hand.

He looked up into a pair of dark eyes that seemed to be dancing with amusement. "'About my height', you say?" His friend asked with a placid smile. "Do tell."

Rolling his eyes, the General looked back down at his map, twirling the flower between his fingers. "What _are_ you going on about?" He spread a hand out over his map. "I have much that takes up my time, as you can see."

"Indeed," the other man replied. "So much that you surely could not have induced an urchin to bring me more flowers than she had freckles."

"Surely not."

"Ah." His friend circled to the head of the table and plucked the flower from the General's fingers. "Seems I have an admirer, then."

"Do you?" The General kept his eyes on his map. "Well, you are so naturally charming, I am not surprised."

"This from the man who has previously compared my personality to a rock."

The General let out a surprised laugh. "I had forgotten about that."

Long black hair shifted from side to side as his friend shook his head. The General gave into temptation and curled a lock of it around his finger. "You are absolutely incorrigible."

Finally standing up straight, the General stretched and tossed him a grin. "Well, since it gets such a rise from a beautiful double-black, I see no reason to change my behavior in any way."

His friend wrapped at his hand with the flower. "Clearly." He shook his head again. "Using a child, honestly..."

The General folded his arms over his chest. "How did you know?"

With a look that clearly said he could not believe he was asking such a question, the other man sighed. "No doubt as you were preoccupied in congratulating yourself on your cleverness, you neglected to tell the girl it was supposed to be a secret."


End file.
